18 weeks!

I THINK I may have felt the baby move last night! I'm not 100% certain, but I felt something close to a tiny little poke last night, and it happened more than once, and each time about the same amount of time apart. I was also half-asleep, so I wonder if I may have just dreamt it instead?

So, we're 18 weeks, and I feel like I don't have too much to report outside of the pregnancy updates that I generally close each post with. We have been busy with the house, trying to decide on paint colors, window treatements, appliances, etc. It's such an exciting time! I can't wait to move in and start making it our home.

I found the fabric for the nursery bedding that I love, and a great little shop on Etsy {where else?!?} to
custom make it for us. I'm so excited! I can't wait to start putting it together! That feels like another load off my shoulders, because honestly, I was starting to get worried this child would be living in a naked nursery. I'm just too picky and I have had a very specific idea of how I want the nursery to look {ie: not quite like a nursery} since before this baby was conceived. But, you know how that goes... the things we envision in our minds usually don't end up materializing in real life. Plus, we are challenged with putting together a gender neutral nursery, and another concern that started to arise was whether or not I could design something strictly gender neutral, or would it end up looking to feminine or masculine {in an effort to compensate one way or the other, you know?}

Baby Stats-- Sweet Potato

• Baby is about 5.6 inches long and weighs about 6.7 ounces.
• Rapid growth starts this week = Fatigue and hunger for momma!
• He/She has become amazingly mobile, passing the hours yawning, hicupping, rolling, twisting, kicking, punching, sucking, and swallowing!
• Baby is finally big enough that soon I'll be able to feel his/her movements!

Cravings: Nothing new or different this week. Still loving cranberry juice, and anything salty. I have, however, started to get hungry earlier, which is definitely rare for me. I'm eating lunch around 11:00am these days, and dinner by 4:30pm when I get home from work. Plus snacks throughout the day.

Baby Bump: It’s there! And, can we please talk about round ligament pain (RLP) for just one second??  I am so thankful my sister went through this already, because I was seriously ready to panick this past Wednesday. I woke up with some pretty serious, but normal, hip pain. I’ve gotten used to the fact that my hips will continue to expand over the duration of my pregnancy, and they are kind enough to alert me to when it’s happening. What I wasn’t expecting was the foreign, “crampy” feeling I started experiencing around lunch time. I tried to stay calm and wait it out, thinking I don’t want to be the neurotic pregnant lady that calls her midwife for every little off sensation. But as the evening progressed, and I didn’t feel any relief, I started to worry.

I wasn’t bleeding, so I figured I would call my sister before I really started to panic. You would have thought she’s an MD herself how she described every symptom I was experiencing to T. But, I guess if you’ve ever been pregnant, you don’t have to be an MD to know exactly what RLP feels like. She assured me I’d be ok, made me promise I would call the doctor if I started to feel worse, and told me to keep an eye on my belly, as it will be noticeably bigger over the next couple of days. I was pretty miserable to rest of the evening, and sure enough, the next morning, my belly was noticeably bigger, more swollen, if you will. Denny likes to point out its growth by commenting, “look at that thing!” and I laugh and tell him to shut up, lol!

{For those who haven't experienced round ligament pain, try to imagine what it would feel like to get kicked in the crotch after the most strenous ab workout of your life. TMI? Sorry folks, just telling it like it is/feels. What's really happening is that my body is making room for this little person as he/she gets ready to hit a growth spurt.}

18 weeks, 4 days. Denny wasn't home so I had to do
the whole self-portrait thing, lol!


Other Changes: Speaking of growth spurts, I have been more tired and hungry lately. You'd think we were on week 5 and not week 18! Growing a person is no small joke, I suppose. My body must be expending all this energy on getting the baby to grow, leaving me with very little left over for my daily tasks. And, can we talk about pregnancy brain for another second? Umm, where has my memory gone!? It's like there is a black hole in there, seriously. Information comes in, and it gets sucked into a vacumm of some sort. Two minutes later, it's like it never happened. I find myself remembering things from days ago, and I am completely dumbfounded that I had absolutely no recollection of the events or the conversation. My friends tell me that this is one of those pre-pregnancy things that you never get back. Wonderful! At least I'm learning to empathize with my husband. I'll try to remember not to give him a hard time next time he doesn't remember something-- that is, if I can remember that I typed that statement!